On Jun 5, 2014, at 9:35 PM, Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org> wrote:
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> On 6/3/2014 7:53 PM, Sylvain Galineau wrote:
>> On Jun 3, 2014, at 7:13 AM, Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> 98 Members voted which is more than 25% of the Membership. Personally, I am quite pleased that there was this level of interest. While not the 90+% that I would have preferred, the 25% is still larger than some democratic political elections in some locations.
>> That it's larger than some place does not make it good, or even good enough. In the democracies I know, 25% participation is considered to seriously lack in relevance and legitimacy. Typical editorials and headlines in such outcomes wax much angst on 'our broken democracy' etc. Needless to say, I didn't expect you to be 'quite pleased'.
>
> As I said elsewhere in the thread, my impression is that there are various reasons why large numbers of Members (particularly smaller ones) are not that interested in voting.
I was wondering about that; the cost of active participation in technical activities - in man-hours, travel, etc. - can be significant so it'd make sense for many members to prioritize this and, to the extent possible, free-ride on members with more resources for things like the AC, AB etc.
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> Also, I was pleased because this is a higher turnout than in the past.
That is a positive, given the growth of the membership lately.
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> But I agree (as I said) that I would prefer 90%+.
>
>>
>> But I also don't think 'open voting' - however defined - or the lack thereof has anything to do with this either.
>